Hello, Inc. is pleased to announce that AutoReserve now supports four additional languages: French, Italian, Spanish, and German.
Building on our existing language lineup, the addition of these four European languages will significantly enhance the user experience for both inbound visitors to Japan and local users across Europe, further strengthening our delivery of a globally accessible dining experience.
# ◆ Background
According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), the number of foreign visitors to Japan reached approximately 3.69 million in April 2026, the highest monthly figure recorded so far in 2026. Among European markets in particular, France posted an all-time single-month high of 59,200 visitors, underscoring a sustained, long-term upward trend in inbound demand from the four European countries (France, Italy, Spain, and Germany).
(Source: [https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/_files/20260520_1615-1.pdf](https://www.jnto.go.jp/statistics/data/_files/20260520_1615-1.pdf?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=european-4-languages))

At AutoReserve, the number of new user registrations from these four European countries has grown approximately 2.8 times year-over-year, making Europe a key growth region for our Dining business.

Hello, Inc. has been accelerating its European expansion, including the establishment of its UK subsidiary, "Hello AI Limited," in London in 2024. Against this backdrop, creating an environment in which users from each country can comfortably book and use our services in their native language has become a top priority. This update is intended to further strengthen user acquisition across the European market.

# ◆ Update Details
This update introduces the following enhancements:

**■ Four new languages now available on AutoReserve and Respo**

French, Italian, Spanish, and German have been added as selectable UI languages on AutoReserve and Respo. Users can now switch to their native language directly from the in-app language selector.
![autoreserve-european-4-languages](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/30d3sbGBu2aqNwcJRUKRdw/fdb8955bdd9d8f10658860f66a936c8e/image__1_.jpg)

The AutoReserve pages for each language are available at the following URLs:
- French：[https://autoreserve.com/fr](https://autoreserve.com/fr?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=european-4-languages)
- Italian：[https://autoreserve.com/it](https://autoreserve.com/it?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=european-4-languages)
- Spanish：[https://autoreserve.com/es](https://autoreserve.com/es?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=european-4-languages)
- German：[https://autoreserve.com/de](https://autoreserve.com/de?utm_source=prtimes&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=european-4-languages)

**■ The four new languages added to multilingual settings forms**

In forms that allow multilingual registration—such as restaurant names and product (menu) names—the four new languages are now configurable. This enables partner restaurants to communicate brand names, menu items, and descriptions in detail across multiple languages, including for users from the four European countries.
![image (2)](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/7MOeUf4OT2a3arAkEpEX2N/8746ef5970cc23fb08413f604446c7e5/image__2_.jpg)

**■ Native-speaker translation**

The texts across our services were translated by native speakers of each language. From day one, users can enjoy natural, high-quality copy in every supported language.

# ◆ Looking Ahead
Hello, Inc. will continue to accelerate its global expansion, further expanding its language support and refining features to suit the culture and business practices of each market. With the vision of a world where users everywhere can access any dining experience in their native language, we will keep evolving every service in our Dining business.

autoreserve-european-4-languages-2

AutoReserve, an AI-Driven Restaurant Reservation Service, Adds Support for French, Italian, Spanish, and German

Kyoto Yamagishi Group is a multi-format restaurant group operating eight locations across Kyoto and Tokyo, including Japanese cuisine, hot-pot kaiseki, izakaya, and yakiniku. As the group grew across multiple stores and formats, on-site challenges began to surface — most notably the lack of integration between reservation platforms and the reservation book, and limited sharing of guest information across the group. With Respo, the group has rolled out a "full-suite deployment" that combines mobile ordering and payment terminals tailored to each store, while using Respo as the operational foundation for maintaining "the Yamagishi standard" across every location.

# Challenges Before Adopting Respo
As Kyoto Yamagishi Group expanded into more stores and formats, the team faced the following on-site challenges.

■ __Lack of integration between reservation platforms and the reservation book__
The group used multiple reservation platforms in parallel, requiring staff to log in to each platform's admin console and manually transcribe reservations into the reservation book
Differences in specifications between platforms created an ongoing risk of input errors and double bookings
When staff covered shifts at other stores, the need to share that store's platform login credentials and re-log in created a significant operational burden

■ __Limited sharing of guest information across the group__
Reservation books were managed store by store, leaving guest information siloed across the group
In situations such as "a regular of Tominokoji Yamagishi visiting Nominokoji Yamagishi," details like guest preferences, allergies, and special occasions could not be shared between stores
As a result, there was a risk of inconsistent service quality across different locations

# Key Features of Respo
"Respo" is an all-in-one platform for restaurants provided by Hello Inc. It brings reservation book, channel manager, POS, payment terminals, and mobile ordering together on a single platform, and can be flexibly combined to match each restaurant's scale and business format.

■ __What Respo Offers__
- Reservation book: Integrates with multiple reservation platforms, eliminating manual transcription from each platform
- Channel manager: Centrally manages inventory across the restaurant's own site and other reservation platforms
- POS / Payment terminals: Complete checkout and payment in a single device, streamlining store operations
- Mobile ordering: Enables guests to order from their smartphone or tablet, reducing wait times
- Guest information management: Share and use guest information across the entire group, beyond individual stores

# Outcomes After Adopting Respo
■ __Outcome 1: No more platform logins — streamlined cross-store coverage__
Because Respo integrates reservation platforms with the reservation book, staff no longer need to log in to each platform's admin console individually. When staff cover shifts at another store, there is no longer any need to share that store's platform credentials and re-log in. Even at the store they are covering, staff can check and manage reservations with the same ease as at their home store.

■ __Outcome 2: A "full-suite deployment" optimized for each store__
Yamagishi Group has combined Respo's product suite to match the business format of each location. At the izakaya-format "Nominokoji Yamagishi," the full suite — reservation book, channel manager, POS, payment terminals, and mobile ordering — has been deployed to reduce idle time during ordering and checkout. This has created an environment in which staff can focus on what truly matters: delivering a comfortable dining experience and spending time in conversation with guests.

■ __Outcome 3: Original practices such as "color-coded management" deliver consistent quality across every store__
Using Respo's guest information features, the group has established a shared rule across all stores: key details such as birthdays, anniversaries, allergies, and VIP handling are managed by "color." This has built a system that upholds Yamagishi Group's philosophy of "hospitality tailored to each individual guest," regardless of which store the guest visits.

# Comments from Kyoto Yamagishi Group
We received the following comments from the representative at Kyoto Yamagishi Group who led the Respo rollout.

__"For us, Respo is a tool we use, not a tool that uses us. We hope it will continue to be a partner that listens to voices from the field and grows with us into an even better service."__
── Representative, Kyoto Yamagishi Group

__"Technology shouldn't disrupt the traditions of Kyoto cuisine or the unique world each restaurant has built. It should be the foundation that supports them from below. We hope Respo will continue to provide that 'underlying support' for us going forward."__
── Representative, Kyoto Yamagishi Group

# Comment from Yuki Hariguchi, Representative Director, Hello Inc.
"Kyoto Yamagishi Group is one of the restaurant groups we hold in the deepest respect — a group that cherishes the traditions of Kyoto cuisine and the hospitality of caring for each guest as an individual. We believe technology should not alter that world, but rather serve as the 'underlying support' that reduces the burden on the floor and gives staff more time to be present with guests. We are committed to evolving Respo by learning from voices on the ground, so that it can be one of the foundations supporting the next chapter of Kyoto Yamagishi Group's journey."

# About the Case Study Article
The full story has been published as an interview with Kyoto Yamagishi Group on the official Respo website. The article offers an in-depth look at how Respo is used in multi-store, multi-format group operations, along with the group's original operational practices.
▼ Case Study Article
"Inside the Respo Rollout at a Multi-Store Group Home to Kyoto's One-Michelin-Starred 'Tominokoji Yamagishi'"
URL:https://respo.autoreserve.com/ja-jp/cases/yamagish

yamagishi

[Respo] Adopted by Kyoto Yamagishi Group, Home of the One-Michelin-Star "Tominokoji Yamagishi"

Hello Inc. is pleased to announce that, with the goal of raising the average annual salary in its engineering organization to ¥15 million by the end of 2027, it will roll out a new compensation system and expand its AI utilization support program starting June 2026.

Hello's current engineering average annual salary is ¥11.5 million. AI is already used daily across the entire engineering organization as a "standard part of the company's toolkit." Building on that foundation, this round of institutional renewal positions Hello as a lean, elite engineering organization targeting industry-leading compensation levels. Regardless of whether engineers are new graduates or mid-career hires, compensation will be determined based on role, skill, and performance — not tenure or career history. Together with the continuation and expansion of AI tool subsidies and the integration of AI utilization into performance evaluation, Hello will further accelerate AI adoption across the entire organization.

# Background and Objectives
With the rapid advancement of generative AI, engineering productivity and the skill sets it demands are changing at a pace unlike anything in recent years. Hello regards this shift as a growth opportunity for both the organization and the individual, and has crystallized the following three principles as management policy:
- Company-wide rollout of development and operational processes built on the premise of AI
- Returning the added value generated through AI utilization to individuals via the compensation and grading systems
- Fair evaluation based on role, skill, and results — not tenure or career history
In line with these principles, Hello is renewing the compensation system for its engineering organization and expanding its AI utilization support program.

# Hello's Position: A "Lean, Elite" Organization Built on Selective Hiring
Hello's commitment to maintaining hiring standards and operating as a "lean, elite" team is not for the sake of achieving high compensation. The primary reason is to avoid a situation in which hires who fall short of the required bar increase the burden on other engineers and drag down the output of the organization as a whole.

By continuing to rigorously evaluate each individual's technical capability and problem-solving ability at the hiring stage, we have preserved an environment where every member can focus on the high-difficulty problems they should be tackling. As a result, the value generated per engineer remains stable at a high level, and the structural foundation for offering commensurate compensation is in place.
- __We do not lower the hiring bar.__ For the roles we need to fill, we prioritize the quality of the match — even if it takes time.
- __We keep individual autonomy and scope of impact broad.__ We have built an environment in which high-level engineers stimulate one another daily and accelerate each other's technical growth.
- __We redirect AI-freed capacity to high-difficulty problems.__ Time created by automation and efficiency gains is reinvested into new business, platform improvement, and R&D.

This compensation increase is the natural outcome of that lean-and-elite approach, and it is a statement of Hello's intent to become the first company that comes to mind for top engineers — both in working environment and in compensation.

# Overview of the New Compensation System
For engineering roles, Hello will introduce a new compensation system built on the following two pillars:

| Item    | Details     |
| ---------- | ---------- |
| Salary Range       | The current average annual salary across all engineering roles is approximately ¥11.5 million. The goal is to raise the average to ¥15 million by the end of 2027. Regardless of whether engineers are new graduates or mid-career hires, salary is determined at the time of joining based on skill, experience, and role within the defined range. For Senior / Principal Engineer-level positions, offers exceeding ¥20 million annually are already available.       |
| Grade and Evaluation       | A job-specific grading system has been introduced. Evaluation is based on three axes: "technical scope of impact," "business impact," and "productivity enabled by AI and automation." Promotions and raises are determined by role and results at each grade — not by tenure or length of service. As a tracked result, an average raise of 9.2% has been achieved after six months.       |

# Overview of the AI Utilization Support Program
To standardize AI utilization across the organization — rather than leaving it to individuals — as a precondition for productivity, Hello operates the following systems and culture. What sets it apart is not merely supplying tools, but designing work on the premise that the organization "uses AI to the fullest," and operating it as a culture in which engineers actively give each other feedback.
(1) Tool Provision
- __AI Tool Subsidies__: For all engineers, the monthly subscription fees for business-use generative AI and coding-assistance AI — including Claude Code and Codex — are fully covered by the company.
(2) Organization-Level AI Utilization Tracking
- __Continuous Usage Tracking__: Using the AI usage aggregation service "supateam," the organization's overall token usage is shared on Slack on a weekly basis. The team continuously monitors whether AI adoption is progressing as an organization.
- __Usage Targets__: As an organization, target values are set for AI token usage. Work is designed on the premise of "using AI to the fullest."
(3) Feedback and Knowledge Sharing
- __Support from AI-Proficient Engineers__: Engineers who are highly skilled in AI utilization support other members in adopting effective usage patterns. Improvement suggestions are made daily from the perspective of, "Could this work be made more efficient with AI?"
- __Slack Sharing of AI Use Cases__: AI use cases, prompts, and workflows that emerge in day-to-day work are shared on Slack as they happen.
- __Immediate Knowledge Sharing__: A culture is firmly in place in which engineers routinely gather and share information on new AI services, new features, and relevant research.
(4) Incorporation into Evaluation
- __AI Utilization in Grade Evaluation__: "How much productivity was improved through AI utilization" is explicitly defined as one component of grade evaluation. Engineers are encouraged to redirect the surplus time created by AI toward higher-difficulty work.

# Comment from Hello Inc. CTO, Kazato Sugimoto
"Rather than simply 'writing code with AI,' Hello fairly evaluates and rewards — with top-tier compensation — engineers who 'engineer AI itself to tackle higher-value problems.' We are excited to work with people who are serious about engineering, in a team where a small, elite group of humans leverages a multitude of AIs to deliver results."

# In Closing
In conjunction with this announcement, we have prepared the following touchpoints for engineer recruitment:
- Casual Interviews: Year-round, via our recruitment site (https://open.talentio.com/r/1/c/hello/pages/80664). We're happy to answer your questions 1-on-1 about our tech stack, working style, and compensation.

hello-engineer1

"Top-tier compensation for engineers who master AI" — Hello Inc. targets ¥15M average engineer salary by end of 2027

Hello, Inc. (Head Office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yuki Hariguchi), the company behind Respo, an all-in-one management platform for restaurants, today announced that its core features—reservation ledger, channel manager, POS, mobile ordering, and payment terminals—will be offered across Japan starting May 1, 2026, with zero initial cost, zero monthly fee, and zero customer acquisition fee.

# Why Make Everything Free?
One of the structural challenges in restaurant management is that fixed costs and operating expenses continue to weigh heavily on businesses, while the burden of those costs has remained difficult to fully identify and address.

Many restaurants have introduced tools such as reservation ledgers, POS systems, ordering systems, and payment terminals individually, from different vendors, whenever the need arose. As a result, the following issues have emerged:

- __Financial cost__: Total monthly fees often reach several tens of thousands of yen, and reservations made through gourmet listing sites typically incur customer acquisition fees on a per-booking basis.
- __Training burden on frontline staff__: Because tools vary from one vendor to another, staff must learn different systems and workflows, creating training and handover costs that are not always visible but consistently accumulate.
- __Fragmented data__: Reservation, sales, customer, and ordering data remain disconnected, forcing not only management decisions but also day-to-day customer service and recommendations to rely heavily on individual experience and intuition.

Respo addresses these structural issues through a fundamental rethink of pricing.
![respo-japangoesfree2](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/26BCqmYbcl0J3bUVV0gX2e/bd38ec5f0b56abbb9edae33db2be83cf/20260413_Respo_PR_1200_675_1.png)

With zero initial cost, zero monthly fee, and zero customer acquisition fee, Respo will make all of the essential functions required for restaurant operations available free of charge across Japan, significantly reducing cost burdens for everyone from independent restaurants to multi-location operators. In addition, by integrating data into a single platform, restaurants can more easily identify operational challenges and make better decisions not only for revenue growth, but also for day-to-day service and operational improvement.

Not just reducing fixed costs, but building the foundation for higher sales—free for every restaurant.
That is the vision behind this move to full free access.

# How Respo Helps Increase Sales While Reducing Costs
What Respo delivers is not simply free tools.

By integrating everything restaurants need—from pre-visit reservation and customer acquisition management, to in-store service, ordering, and payment, to post-visit customer follow-up—into a single platform, Respo supports restaurant operations end to end.

With this move to full free access, restaurants will first be freed from a major fixed-cost burden. By unifying tools into one system, the time and effort required for staff training, setup, and operational management can also be significantly reduced.

In addition, by using Respo, data related to reservations, sales, customers, and orders is automatically connected. The longer the platform is used, the more this data accumulates as an asset for the restaurant. By centralizing data, time-consuming manual work—such as reconciling data across locations or matching spreadsheets in Excel—becomes unnecessary, enabling substantial gains in operational efficiency.
![respo-japangoesfree3](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/6Fsb7JGYyeb4PZ2Mt0X0Nx/44639dc7f8fceb9b8229b4050771d7b2/20260413_Respo_PR_1200_675_2.png)

With data available in one place, restaurants can make decisions such as:
- Visualizing which days of the week and time slots are the most profitable by combining reservation and sales data, then optimizing staffing and menu composition
- Identifying the types of customers most likely to become repeat visitors by combining customer data and visit frequency, and executing more effective marketing measures
- Analyzing data across all locations to uncover performance differences between stores and design targeted improvement measures

These are just a few examples. As AI technology continues to evolve, the insights that can be generated from integrated data will expand even further. Through this full free offering of its core features, Respo aims to ensure that restaurants of every size can benefit from that evolution.

# What Current Restaurant Users Are Saying
## “Reservation and sales management across multiple locations can now be viewed on a single screen”
![yamagishi](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/2jSSRwNAACpU6i69lZsXAN/4d404e782cfae54a4a4d3c3bd45c3c41/image__3_.png)
### Mr. Yamagishi, Representative of Yamagishi
We operate several restaurants with different concepts and locations, from traditional kaiseki in Kyoto and yakiniku to locations in Tokyo. By implementing Respo’s reservation ledger at our main stores, we were able to centralize reservation management across multiple locations. With site controller integration, reservations from various gourmet websites are automatically imported into the ledger, which has eliminated the need to check each platform separately and helped us avoid double bookings.

We also introduced POS, allowing reservation data and sales data to be connected seamlessly. In the past, each store used a different system, and month-end reporting was a major burden. Now, we can quickly check reservation statuses for each store just by switching between locations, even when we are out of the office, making multi-store management much more efficient.

## “Eliminating the ‘second shift’ after business hours and creating an environment where we can focus on hospitality”
![yamazaki](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/39879FCwyMevaHVIoHnleH/24ec1e7e377de22791ccc429649ca8ff/image__4_.png)
### Mr. Yamazaki, Owner (Independent restaurant in Tokyo)
As a small counter-style restaurant, what matters most to us is being able to give each guest our full attention. That is why we wanted to keep back-office work to a minimum. In the past, reservation management was time-consuming, and it was not unusual for us to still be tied up with administrative tasks after business hours.

Since adopting Respo’s reservation ledger, we have been able to manage both online and phone reservations from a single screen, greatly reducing the burden of handling bookings. We also use the payment terminal, which has made the checkout process much smoother. For an independent restaurant like ours, having a system that is simple and helps reduce operational hassle has been a tremendous support.

Another major benefit is that we can now serve guests while checking their visit history, something our regular customers have really appreciated.

## “Instantly recognizing regular customers and delivering service that no longer relies on memory alone”
![manryou](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/2Vn8qDo8Uc2UEHs9QNrGCm/fc7069f529f4dffdf4b2ecd2b9280b18/image__5_.png)
### Mr. Takimoto, Representative of Manryo
We operate six yakiniku restaurants in the Kansai region and welcome a wide range of guests, many of whom are regular customers. One of our top priorities is improving customer satisfaction, and as part of that effort, we introduced Respo’s CTI integration.

The moment the phone rings, the customer’s name, visit history, and most recent visit date appear on screen across all of our group locations. This allows us to greet them right away with a comment such as, “Thank you for visiting our [store name] branch previously.” We believe that making customers feel remembered leads to a better customer experience, and these small personal touches are what create the greatest value.

## “Centralizing reservation management across multiple locations for smoother, error-free operations”
![savoy](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/2gsLxoG41trkBwdBux3mZS/ee1114ba4bf188cf2e95c993047370e1/image.png)
### Mr. Kikuchi, Manager of SAVOY Azabu-Juban Main Store
We operate several specialty Neapolitan pizza restaurants in Azabu-Juban. Because our restaurants are centered around counter seating and accommodate a limited number of guests, even a single double booking or missed reservation check can directly affect the customer experience for that day. Since introducing Respo’s reservation ledger across all of our locations, we have been able to check the reservation status of every store in real time on a single screen, which has greatly reduced both the time spent confirming reservations and the risk of oversight. At our main store, we have also introduced a payment terminal, allowing customer information from the reservation ledger to be carried over directly to the payment process, which has shortened the amount of time customers need to wait. When we opened a new store, it was also smooth and easy to start operating under the same system right away.

# Future Developments
Respo already offers a customer management function that uses reservation and customer data accumulated in the reservation ledger together with dining data from the POS system.

This makes it possible to understand customers based on their visit history and usage patterns, which can then be used to encourage repeat visits and improve service quality. Going forward, this customer management function will be further enhanced to support more advanced customer segmentation and outreach.

Respo’s goal is to first consolidate restaurant data through a fully free infrastructure, and then help transform restaurant management itself through the use of that data. This is the first step in bringing that value to every restaurant in Japan, from independent operators to large-scale chains.

# Comment from Yuki Hariguchi, Representative Director of Hello, Inc.
What Respo aims to achieve is very simple: helping restaurants increase sales while reducing costs.
To make that possible, we decided to make all of the essential tools that form the foundation of restaurant operations free of charge. Reservations, POS, payments, and even customer acquisition fees—everything is zero.
We want restaurants to use the money they save for better food, better service, and better support for their staff. And we want to make data-driven management the norm, whether for independent restaurants or multi-location operators. Respo aims to become the platform that supports that future.


respo-japangoesfree1

Respo Makes Core Restaurant Management Features Free Across Japan

Hello, Inc. will be sponsoring "RubyKaigi 2026," an international conference on the Ruby programming language, as a Gold Sponsor, and will be hosting a drinkup event on the first day, Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

RubyKaigi is an international conference on the Ruby programming language. It is the world's largest gathering of Ruby developers and the place where Ruby core developers meet every year. It plays a central role in showcasing Ruby's latest features, connecting the global Ruby community, and shaping the future of the language.

RubyKaigi 2026, marking its 20th edition, will be held over three days starting April 22, 2026, at Hakodate Arena and Hakodate Citizen Hall. Speakers will include Yukihiro Matsumoto (Matz), the creator of Ruby, along with well-known speakers from Japan and around the world.

**RubyKaigi 2026 Event Details**

- Dates: Wednesday, April 22 – Friday, April 24, 2026
- Venue: Hakodate Arena & Hakodate Citizen Hall (Hakodate, Hokkaido)
- Official Website: [https://rubykaigi.org/2026/](https://rubykaigi.org/2026/)

**Join Us for "Hello Drink Up**
![rubykaigi20260422](//images.ctfassets.net/x0lx6207qomw/L7eZHPHpSF69OwF49Nxtc/fd5b5c1812f01bcad5c7b512fdb2157e/Rubykaigi_drinkup_Hello.png)
Hello, Inc. will host a drink-up event, **Hello Drink up**, on Wednesday, April 22, the first day of RubyKaigi 2026, as an after-party following the Official Party.

At this event, we will offer local cuisine and sake unique to Hakodate, Hokkaido, providing a casual setting for RubyKaigi 2026 attendees to connect with one another. Building on the excitement of the conference’s first day, we hope to create an opportunity for participants to deepen their connections while enjoying conversations about technology and product development.

Registration is first come, first served and requires advance sign-up. We warmly welcome your participation.

- Date & Time: Wednesday, April 22, 2026, from 21:30 (RubyKaigi 2026 Day 1)
- Registration & Details: [https://helloinc.connpass.com/event/389120/](https://helloinc.connpass.com/event/389120/)
- Eligibility: RubyKaigi 2026 attendees only

Unbound by societal norms andcommon sense, we believe in our ownunique ideas, and strive to createwhat has yet to exist in the world.

We offer a new business that combines our proprietary speech AI technology with our extensive knowledge in product development.